That which shamanism does is put you in touch with what you already know, but have not had the capacity or power or desire to really KNOW FULLY up until the time of the shamanic initiation.
That is why Nietzsche speaks of the mode of (shamanic) inspiration as giving one light feet, and a feeling that everything one writes is automatically inclined to hit the nail on the head. He is speaking of the sensation (and to some degree, the quality) of shamanic inspiration. He is not speaking, by any means, of divine inspiration in the prophetic mode.
He is certainly NOT telling the truth about anything in that conventional religious sense -- but this is how he is most commonly misunderstood.
There are people who are attracted to his writings because the vitality of the shamanic (simultaneous) self-destruction and self-transcendence has a powerful magnetic pull on any human psyche that isn't already quite dead. Attraction doesn't imply understanding, though, and these who become Nietzsche's followers (and that despite the fact that he said he didn't want any followers and rebuffed them) are usually inclined to misread the basis of their attraction to Nietzsche (his shamanistic quality of burning like a shooting star). They think they were attracted to the "truth" of his insights. Rather, they were attracted to his mode of relating his insights in an extremely authentic -- which is to say, shamanic --way. They sense that Nietzsche's whole self is behind his perspectives in every way, and that it is above all a UNITED self (not one that is conventional and divided against itself) that thinks in this way. That kind of authenticity in honesty and honour is so very rare that it strikes one with the force of a thunderbolt (that is, if one is still alive at all). But then comes the subsequent misunderstanding, which is the overall fatal misreading of one's own reaction.
Instead of finding their own way to shamanistic self-transformation and to an authentic perspective all of their own, his followers latch onto some element of Nietzsche's own ideas, such as his misogyny (a feature that is quite conventional in the context of 19th Century historical terms). Being hostile to women, his readers conclude, is the way to cause their inner lights to burn more brightly. They believe that they must have initially been attracted to Nietzsche because of this kind of "truth". They attribute his misogyny as providing the source of his magnetism -- that is as the source of his capacity to speak shamanically. They mistake cause and effect, and overly identify with ideas that have no value in themselves, except for the capacity of the shaman-magician to breathe burning authenticity and life into his thoughts.
Such a misunderstanding is worse than death. It turns those who were attracted to a genuine expression of someone's authentic selfhood into bitter old men, whose self-misunderstandings have led them to lose their ways.
Is there redemption for such prematurely aging men?
That is why Nietzsche speaks of the mode of (shamanic) inspiration as giving one light feet, and a feeling that everything one writes is automatically inclined to hit the nail on the head. He is speaking of the sensation (and to some degree, the quality) of shamanic inspiration. He is not speaking, by any means, of divine inspiration in the prophetic mode.
He is certainly NOT telling the truth about anything in that conventional religious sense -- but this is how he is most commonly misunderstood.
There are people who are attracted to his writings because the vitality of the shamanic (simultaneous) self-destruction and self-transcendence has a powerful magnetic pull on any human psyche that isn't already quite dead. Attraction doesn't imply understanding, though, and these who become Nietzsche's followers (and that despite the fact that he said he didn't want any followers and rebuffed them) are usually inclined to misread the basis of their attraction to Nietzsche (his shamanistic quality of burning like a shooting star). They think they were attracted to the "truth" of his insights. Rather, they were attracted to his mode of relating his insights in an extremely authentic -- which is to say, shamanic --way. They sense that Nietzsche's whole self is behind his perspectives in every way, and that it is above all a UNITED self (not one that is conventional and divided against itself) that thinks in this way. That kind of authenticity in honesty and honour is so very rare that it strikes one with the force of a thunderbolt (that is, if one is still alive at all). But then comes the subsequent misunderstanding, which is the overall fatal misreading of one's own reaction.
Instead of finding their own way to shamanistic self-transformation and to an authentic perspective all of their own, his followers latch onto some element of Nietzsche's own ideas, such as his misogyny (a feature that is quite conventional in the context of 19th Century historical terms). Being hostile to women, his readers conclude, is the way to cause their inner lights to burn more brightly. They believe that they must have initially been attracted to Nietzsche because of this kind of "truth". They attribute his misogyny as providing the source of his magnetism -- that is as the source of his capacity to speak shamanically. They mistake cause and effect, and overly identify with ideas that have no value in themselves, except for the capacity of the shaman-magician to breathe burning authenticity and life into his thoughts.
Such a misunderstanding is worse than death. It turns those who were attracted to a genuine expression of someone's authentic selfhood into bitter old men, whose self-misunderstandings have led them to lose their ways.
Is there redemption for such prematurely aging men?
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